This page will contain materials for the May 14, 15, 16 workshop of Gerry Hemingway in Geneve, CH
KEEP CHECKING THIS PAGE FOR UPDATES - they will continue happening through TH1ursday evening
music is presented in the order of events. please scroll down to your event.....
Vendredi 14 mai 2010 (9h30-12h30 et 14h-17h)
ERA, 8 rue Charles Bonnet
Elèves de l’école professionnelle jazz et musique improvisée AMR/CPM (Professional Jazz Ensemble)
instrumentation: 2 guitars, 1 flute, 1 sax alto, 1 trpt. piano, bass (morning) drums
Piece #1 - If you Like
Upper Line
Bb Trumpet
Guitar 1 (w/harmony) (flute can use top line of this part as well)
Lower Line (harmony)
Eb alto
Rhythm Section
Score
mp3 (of performance from "Devils's Paradise")
Additional notes:
The form used for playing can be deduced from the recording or it can be left open. The form on the recording with alternative suggestions are as follows; on completion of the theme everyone except the chosen soloist returns to the bass line at Bar 16, and beginning at a very low dynamic repeats this bar for a while as an accompaniment. There are many games you can play with this idea. For instance each player playing this ostinato can play just bits and pieces (always different) of the phrase while keeping the seven beat structure intact. Also one can play alternative pitches and sounds in the rhythm of the phrase. Another option is that some accompaniment can be free floating harmony against this rhythmic backdrop. Eventually the bass and drums transform into 4/4 swing which should happen seamlessly, at which point I would suggest that others who were involved in the accompaniment lay out. The form and harmony are open, though suggestions of the harmony in the tune are always good reference points. Eventually those who dropped out return with Bar 16 but this time the upper voice repetition. This should begin quietly and phase over the 4/4 walking time. It should steadily build and eventually the bass and drums should join the phrase. The soloist joins and so the entire ensemble is playing this repetition. The choice of notes and sounds is open and should strive for density and tension. The dynamic builds to a breaking point around which time the next solo begins "ripping" over the top of this now rather nasty repetition. When the ensemble has reached its top dynamic and tension a cue is given by some desiginated player to do the last repeat, and then there is a cut at the end of the bar, leaving the soloist temporaily acapella. On the recording bass and drums then launch into fast 4/4 as accompaniment to the soloist. Other players could comment at will as the solo continues, eventually everyone is in for a short period of total cacophony, where the 4/4 disintegrates into fast, dense, violent forward momentum. Out of this the drums emerge as the soloist at first accapella. Eventually the rest of the ensemble comes in underneath the soloist with a repetition of bar 29/30. At first this accompaniment should be hardly perceptible in the midst of the drums thrashing away, heightened by the drummer ignoring the 4/4 feeling. Eventually this accompaniment should build and the drummer can start to play off of the accompaniment eventually slamming the backbeat and cueing the ensemble to make the last repeat. At the completion of the last repeat the band carries on with bar 31 and 32 and then takes the DS (not marked at bar 32) to bar 8. The head continues from here to the end the only change being that at bar 29 the dynamics are in reverse (from loud to soft) and the last bars are played softly with a ritardando.
Piece # 2 Endpiece
18 bar line (takes practice with reading !!)
Bb Tenor and/or Bass Clarinet (so far we have no one to play this part)
Guitar 1
Piano
Bass (switches to 9 bar line)
12 bar line
Bb Trumpet
Trombone
Guitar 2 (best choice for flute)
Eb alto
9 bar line - Rhythm Section
Score
Original handwritten parts
mp3 (of performance from "Special Detail")
Additional notes:
This piece follows in the line of classic Mingus emphatic swing/holler phrasing. Parts should be played with gusto, precision and with plenty of loose gutbucket color. The original handwritten parts are possibly easiar to manage once you understand the way the various length phrases go together (18 x 2) + (12 x 3) + (9 x 4) - the total math is 36 bars once the 12 bar theme begins.
The form used for playing, of which there is next to none, can be deduced from the recording. Essentially its collective ensemble open and then eventually a bass solo. On the recording the ensemble sort of fades out and then fades back in for another collective blowage before returning to the theme. The trick is that when the 18 bar theme returns the first time on the way out it acts as a kind of cue. Everyone else should carry on with their improvisation until they are to come back with their part (the entrance of the 12 bar phrase - note that the bass & drums are different on the way out then on the way in). It could also be arranged that only the bassist returns with the 18 bar theme, maybe others mimic and briefly join the theme until the their written material begins after the initial 18 bars.
Piece # 3 HollerUp
Please print both Part 1 and Part 2 - I will explain how they go together
flute+Gt 1 - Pt 1 (see practice mp3 below)- Pt 2
Trombone - Pt 1 - Pt 2 / (no one to play this part yet)
Tenor Pt 1 - Pt 2 /
Gt 2 - Pt 1 (w/tenor) -
Gt 2+Pn - Pt. 2 - /
Bass+Pn+Dr- Pt 1 -
Bass+Dr - Pt 2 /
Gt 3 - Pt 1 (w/tenor)- Pt 2 (w/trombone)
Holler Up (from the recording "Demon Chaser")
Vendredi 14 mai 2010 (18h-21h) ERA, 8 rue Charles Bonnet
Grand Ensemble Jazz et Orchestre à cordes du CPM
Sound Mass
In contrast to more traditional musical textures, sound mass composition "minimizes the importance of individual pitches in preference for texture, timbre, and dynamics as primary shapers of gesture and impact." Developed from the modernist tone clusters and spread to orchestral writing by the late 1950s and 1960s, sound-mass "obscures the boundary between sound and noise"
Techniques which may create or be used with sound mass include extended techniques such as muted brass or strings, flutter tonguing, wide vibrato, extreme ranges, and glissandos.
The use of "chords approaching timbres" begins with Debussy and Edgard Varèse often carefully scored individual instrumental parts so that they would fuse into one ensemble timbre or sound mass.
Some examples include European "textural" compositions of the fifties and sixties such as Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen for three orchestras (1955–57), and Gesang der Jünglinge (1956), Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1959) and György Ligeti's works featuring micropolyphony in works like Atmosphères (1961) and his Requiem (1963-65). Also worth mentioning are Iannis Xenakis' orchestral works such as Metastasis (1953–54) this hyperlink is an mp3 of this piece, and Pithoprakta (1955–56).
parts will be posted Tuesday or Wednesday
Samedi 15 mai 2010 (9h-12h) AMR, 10 rue des Alpes
Elèves de batterie et percussion
Sur inscription / Auditeurs possibles
Drum Master Class - "The Language of Color"
no prepatory music will be provided - please bring any small percussion instruments you may have (cymbals, metal objects, wood blocks). Please bring any strikers you have: Mallets, Sticks, Brushes, Knitting Needles, bamboo, ping pong balls, ANYTHING !!! Pianist, bring any preparations you might have for inside piano
Samedi 15 mai 2010 (12h-15h) AMR, 10 rue des Alpes
Elèves pré-professionnels (classiques et jazz)
8-10 participants / sur inscription / Auditeurs possibles
Pré-Professional Small Ensemble
instrumentation (so far): 1 cello, 1 pianist, 1 bass player
In the Distance (posted 3/1/03, new posting 2/7/05)
Score w/trumpet
Score w/trombone (cello reads trombone part, piano and bass read bass part (bass tries to master double stops)
mp3 w/trumpet
mp3 w/trombone
Dimanche 16 mai 2010 (14h-17h) + performance (17-18)
Centre Musical du Petit-Lancy,5-7 av. Louis Bertrand
Elèves école de jazz du CPM et élèves des ateliers AMR
Sur inscription / Auditeurs possibles
"Free playing session with Gerry Hemingway"
bring your open minds and will to explore and take chances.